Ymchwil gymdeithasol Social research Number: 11/2015 The work of Welsh Government funded Community Support Officers Appendix D - Dyfed Powys Police Force Area Report 1 The work of Welsh Government funded Community Support Officers Appendix D – Dyfed Powys Police Force Area Report Trudy Lowe, Helen Innes, Martin Innes, Daniel Grinnell Universities’ Police Science Institute Cardiff University School of Social Sciences 1-3 Museum Place, Cardiff University E-mail: [email protected] Views expressed in this report are those of the researchers and not necessarily those of the Welsh Government For further information please contact: Dr Mike Harmer Knowledge and Analytical Services Finance and Corporate Services Welsh Government Merthyr Tydfil CF48 1UZ Email: [email protected] All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ Welsh Government Social Research, 26 February 2015 ISBN 978-1-4734-2963-5 © Crown Copyright 2015 Table of Contents List of Figures .............................................................................................................ii List of Tables...............................................................................................................ii 1 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 A Case Study Approach................................................................................ 2 1.2 About Dyfed Powys Police Force Area ......................................................... 4 1.3 About Tenby, Pembrokeshire ....................................................................... 5 2 Key Findings........................................................................................................ 6 2.1 Who are the DPP WG-CSOs? ...................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Recruitment ............................................................................................ 6 2.1.2 Demographics ........................................................................................ 7 2.1.3 Churn ..................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Where are the DPP WG-CSOs? ................................................................. 10 2.2.1 Deployment Strategy, Dyfed Powys ..................................................... 10 2.2.2 Deployment Strategy, Tenby ................................................................ 12 2.3 What are the DPP WG-CSOs doing? ......................................................... 15 2.3.1 CSO activity in the Tenby Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) ......... 15 2.3.2 CSO activity reported in the local media .............................................. 21 2.4 Impact on Recorded Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour ........................... 23 2.4.1 Time trends in Crime ............................................................................ 23 2.4.2 Time Trends in Anti-social Behaviour ................................................... 26 2.4.3 Time trends in any CSO attendance at the scene ................................ 28 2.5 Impact on Public Perceptions ..................................................................... 32 2.5.1 The Wales and Dyfed Powys public ..................................................... 33 2.5.2 DPP surveys of public attitudes in Tenby ............................................. 34 3 Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 40 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. 42 i List of Figures Figure 1.1 Data Structure for Dyfed Powys Police .............................................................................. 2 Figure 1.2 The Phased Deployment of WG-CSOs across Wales ....................................................... 3 Figure 2.1 Neighbourhood Policing Team Structure, Tenby and Narberth ........................................ 12 Figure 2.2 Source of media reports about PCSO activity between 2011 and 2013 ........................... 22 Figure 2.3 Indexed trend in police recorded crime in DP PFA.......................................................... 25 Figure 2.4 Indexed trend in police recorded crime in Tenby ........................................................... 26 Figure 2.5 Indexed trend in police recorded non-crime incidents in DP PFA ..................................... 27 Figure 2.6 Indexed trend in police recorded ASB incidents in Tenby ................................................ 28 Figure 2.7 Percentage of crimes and incidents with a CSO at the scene – Dyfed Powys Police........ 29 Figure 2.8 Ward level change in CSO attendance at crime – DP ...................................................... 30 Figure 2.9 Ward level change in CSO attended ASB incidents: DP .................................................. 30 Figure 2.10 Number of incidents showing number attended by a CSO in Tenby ............................... 32 Figure 2.11 Percentage change in public perceptions for Wales and Dyfed Powys .......................... 33 Figure 2.12 Change in public perceptions of the CSO role, Dyfed Powys ......................................... 34 Figure 2.13 Crime perception in Tenby, 2012 .................................................................................. 35 Figure 2.14 Percentage affected ‘often’ or ‘frequently’ by ASB problems in local area, Tenby 2012 .. 36 Figure 2.15 Perceived importance of the police and CSO role, Tenby 2012 ..................................... 36 List of Tables Table 2.1 Neighbourhood Policing Team Demographics, Dyfed Powys Police 2013.......................... 8 Table 2.2 Dyfed Powys Police CSO Deployment ............................................................................ 10 Table 2.3 Media reports of community problems involving CSOs, ................................................... 23 Table 2.4 Police recorded crime data for Wales, year ending September 2013 ............................... 24 Table 2.5 Police recorded incident rate* for ASB in Wales, 2007-2013 ............................................ 26 Table 2.6 Any CSO attendance at crime or ASB in Tenby, 2011-13 ................................................ 31 Table 2.7 Public perceptions of local policing: themes from free-text survey responses, Tenby ........ 37 ii 1 Introduction This Police Force Area (PFA) Report explores both the process of implementation and impacts associated with the Welsh Government’s programme to fund additional Community Support Officers in the Dyfed Powys PFA. It does this by focusing on the selected case study area (CSA) of Tenby. The analyses bring together a wide range of data to understand and report on the key issues underlying the recruitment, deployment and day-to-day activities of Community Support Officers (CSOs) within Dyfed Powys Police (DPP) as a whole and in Tenby in particular. Wherever possible, officers funded by the Welsh Government are singled out for detailed investigation (WG-CSOs). Police recorded data on crime and incidents, including anti-social behaviour, and public perception surveys are used to assess how far we can infer that the change in CSO resource in the PFA has had an impact on operational policing and public opinion respectively. This type of data is compared over time, where possible, before, during and following the deployment of the new CSOs. In addition, empirical qualitative data was obtained from interviews and focus groups with key players within the force, from senior officers to the CSOs themselves. By combining these different data sources, the report sets out to provide an in-depth examination of both the process of implementing the programme and its impact for the communities within DPP. This PFA Report, together with those for North Wales, Gwent, South Wales PFAs and the BTP in Wales, are appendices to the research’s final report1 wherein data are brought together for analysis and discussion at an All-Wales level. 1 Final Report: ‘The work of Welsh Government funded Community Support Officers’, Universities’ Police Science Institute, February 2015 (ISBN 978-1-4734-2962-8). 1 1.1 A Case Study Approach National survey data for Wales was first used to report on public perceptions concerning the visibility and ‘presence’ of CSOs in Welsh communities2. This data was indicative of broad patterns within different community contexts and helped to inform the selection of six case study areas from across the four PFAs in Wales. The advantage of the case study approach is that it allows issues of WG-CSO deployment, activity and impact to be explored in more detail within a clearly defined local context. Guided by the findings of the secondary data analysis, as well as by opportunities to tie in with additional data streams, the six locales chosen for case study were sampled to cover a range of different community contexts. In DPP, Tenby was chosen as the single CSA, on the grounds that it represents a rural community with significant seasonal, tourist and transient populations. Figure 1.1 shows the data structure for this report. The data is presented at three levels of analysis: (1) Police Force Area; (2) Local Policing Division; (3) Case Study Area. Figure 1.1 Data Structure for Dyfed Powys Police 2 Interim Report 1: ‘Appraisal of